Hi Kate,

I can't thank you enough for sharing that terrific article. Every now and then you come across something that has some real meat in it and this story is just that.

But for me, the anniversary of the Nisqually quake has a personal momento in recalling what it sounded like two and a half hours before it occurred. Sometimes trying to use words which describe something in a more visual way makes things a little easier to understand, so that's how I'm going to explain this ear tone.

Imagine taking a fourth of July sparkler and standing it upright and at the base of the sparkler attach a cherry bomb. As the ear tone began it was like hearing a very loud electrical sound and it had a high pitched quality, but not smooth, so you get this bushy sound effect. That lasted for 15 seconds and at the end, it sounded like a bomb had gone off and then the sound traveled out into a circle instead of straight like the sparkler. This is the signature of a subduction quake ear tone. It has its very own sound effects.

When I heard this sound I was at work and my manager was talking to me about something work related. The sound was so loud I could scarsely hear her.

A year ago, I didn't have a ring map and I didn't known where this sound was coming from, but I did know it was serious. The next time it happens, if it does again in my lifetime, I will know where to look. But the reality is that two and a half hours of warning is not enough and until the day arrives when ear tones are no longer foo foo'd by the scientific community and accepted as a natural phenomena, I'll only be able to tell people who believe.

Proving scientific theories is a long slow process and requires great patience. Perhaps in understand the process, making one piece of the puzzle fit at a time, in time I'll learn patience and understand the whole of the process.

Thanks again Kate....Petra